Oracle’s database product line is getting increasingly cloud-friendly, even if it doesn’t get credit for it. While Oracle’s Public Cloud has yet to make its presence felt, the Oracle 12c and NoSQL databases are becoming better citizens on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Perhaps more important, as more customers and ISV partners build SaaS apps, whether delivered from their own premises or public clouds, Oracle’s technology is making life increasingly easier for them.

On the admin side, features that have come out over the past year have dramatically reduced server sprawl and, therefore, cost of operations. On the developer side, better support for JSON as a data type makes it easier to build web and mobile experiences.

The latest generation of the world's most popular database, Oracle Database 12cRelease 12.1.0.2, complete with innovative Multitenant architecture, new In-Memory column store and support for JSON documents, is now available. Designed for the cloud, Oracle Database 12c helps customers make more efficient use of their IT resources while continuing to improve their users' service levels and further reduce IT costs.